Porfirio Diaz

José de la Cruz Porfirio Díaz Mori (; 15 September 1830 – 2 July 1915) was a Mexican soldier and politician, who served seven terms as President of Mexico; a total of three and a half decades from 1876 to 1911. A veteran of the Reform War and the French intervention in Mexico, Díaz rose to the rank of General, leading republican troops against the French-imposed Emperor Maximilian. Seizing power in a coup in 1876, Díaz and his allies ruled Mexico for the next thirty-five years, a period known as the Porfiriato.